Hot Fudge Peanut Butter Pudding Cake

Are you ready for this? I know I have posted a crock pot cake before, but this is the ultimate! Of course it is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I doubled it and put it in my big crock pot for about 3 1/2 hours on low and when you scoop into it, the liquid you pour on top has turned into this gooey, fudgy sauce that is perfect with the moist cake. The peanut butter flavor was not that strong, but it was still chocolatey and delish with some vanilla ice cream on top. It was pure comfort food during those snowy days we had last week!

Cake:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

½ cup sugar

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup smooth or chunky peanut butter

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Topping:

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

¾ cup sugar

1 ½ cups boiling water

Vanilla ice cream for serving

Coat a medium round or oval slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center, add the milk, oil, and vanilla, and stir in widening circles, gradually incorporating the dry ingredients, until you have a smooth batter. Stir in the peanut butter. The batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread evenly in the crockpot.

To make the topping, in another medium-size bowl, combine the cocoa, and sugar; pour in the boiling water and whisk until smooth. Gently pour over the batter in the cooker; DO NOT STIR. Cover and cook on HIGH until puffed and the top layer is set, 2 to 2 ½ hours.

Turn off the cooker and let it stand, covered for 30 minutes before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

raspberry rice pudding

pudding on the rice rice pudding



Ingredients:

• 8 Cups of Milk
• 4 Cups of Cooked Medium Grain Rice
• 4 Cups of Sugar
• 2 tsp. of Salt
• 2 Eggs
• 4 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
• 2 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

Method:

In Large Sauce Pan add: The first four ingredients.

In separate bowl crack 2 eggs and let sit at room temperature. Set aside.

Stir slowly with flat wooden spoon at medium heat for 45-60 minutes until the mixture has evenly thickened.

Take pan off heat. Take the room temperature eggs and whisk them thoroughly adding a table spoon of the hot pudding to temper the eggs. When you have added equal amounts of pudding to the eggs, slowly incorporate the eggs back into the pudding. Return the pudding to medium heat and slowly stir as you bring the pudding back to a boil.

Then take off heat, put pudding in glass bowl cover with saran wrap and cool from 6-24 hours.

Whip 4 cups of heavy whipping cream and 2 tsp. of pure vanilla extract.

Add the whipped cream to the cooled mixture until it is fully enveloped.

Keep pudding refrigerated, it lasts about 1 week. Different Flavors:

Amaretto Rice Pudding

Omit the Vanilla Extract and instead add 2 tsp.of Almond Flavoring

Chocolate Rice Pudding

In a microwave melt 1 cup of milk chocolate chips with 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream for 2 minutes. Whisk until shiny and add to the cooled pudding BEFORE adding the vanilla whipped cream.

Raspberry Rice Pudding

Add a bag of frozen raspberries and mix into the pudding fully incorporate and then fold in the vanilla whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Quick Margarita Chicken

This dish is Oh So Delicious! And is my husbands number one request. (I'm salivating just writting it.)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp honey
1 cup finely lime tostitos tortilla chips
1 cup italian style stewed tomatoes
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese

In a blender or food processor, finely crush tortilla chips.

Mix oil, juice, and honey. Brush on chicken and roll in chip crumbs.

Bake @ 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Puree tomatoes and cilantro into a sauce.

After chicken has been cooking 20-25 minutes and is just about done, remove. Top with puree, sprinkle with cheese and bake again for 4-5 minutes. Serve with lime wedges.

Note: If you decide to use a different tortilla chip, DO NOT use the more authentic stone ground tortilla chips, it just doesn't seem to turn out right. Also, I always make more of the sauce... cause I'm "saucy" like that.

Killer Guacamole

Since living in Africa and having avocado trees in my backyard, and the avocados were the size of small melons...I have eaten plenty of avocados/guacamole in my day. I have perfected the recipe and wanted to share!

3 ripe avocados
1 vine ripened tomato
1/4 c chopped cilantro
fresh garlic
1 lime
2 T ranch
1/2 sweet onion
1/4 salt
1/8 t pepper

Empty avocados into bowl and mash with fork. Dice tomatos and onion, chop cilantro,and fold into mashed avocado. Add juice of entire lime, 2T ranch dressing, add salt and pepper. Stir with spoon softly. Place in bowl and top with more chopped tomatos and cilantro for garnish.

Lemon Cupcakes

This is the recipe I made for Robyn's party that some of you requested. They were so easy it's almost embarrassing to admit.

For the cupcakes:

1 box lemon cake mix

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup oil

4 large eggs

Combine all and bake in mini cupcake pan according to directions on cake box. Cool on rack and then put in freezer for 30 minutes.

When cupcakes are done freezing, use a lemon baller to scoop a small amount of cake from the tops of cupcakes. Fill with lemon curd. I just put it in a ziplock and cut off the corner.

Frosting:

1 teaspoon fresh lemon rind, grated

3 tablespoons butter

3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon water

1 dash salt

Whip all ingredients together until light and fluffy. Pipe on top of cupcakes, covering the lemon curd completely. Enjoy!

Aroma of Christmas

This is kind of random, but since I just posted my christmas toffee I thought I should include one of my other favorite things about christmas. Mike's mom gave me this "recipe" after I spent my first christmas with them. It is just a mix of a few things that you keep on the stove and it has the most heavenly smell! Sara is always in charge of making it. She knows just what to do. Try it- you will love it!

“Aroma of Christmas”

3 sticks of cinnamon
3 bay leaves
scant (no more than ¼ C) whole cloves (I usually use a few T)
2 sections lemon (1/2 lemon)
2 pieces orange peel (2 quarters- I usually don't bother peeling it and just throw in the whole orange sections.)

Combine with about a quart of water in a saucepan. Simmer over low heat for as long as you would like. Make sure to keep refilling the water because it evaporates quickly. Change the water and ingredients every few days or so.

English Toffee

This is obviously not a christmas cookie, but this time of year I probably eat more toffee than cookies anyway. This is my Grandma's recipe that she makes every year and I get so excited to make it over the holidays. It is actually pretty simple- you just need an electric skillet. Enjoy!

2 C almonds
1 cup sugar
2 squares butter (no substitutions)
3 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon Karo syrup
chocolate bars or milk chocolate chips (I use about 3 or 4 Hershey bars or a king size symphony bar)

Roast almonds at 350 for 10 minutes. Then coarsely chop ¾ C of them and finely chop the rest. You will use the coarsely chopped IN the toffee and the finely chopped ON TOP of it! Put aside.
Combine sugar, butter, water and Karo in electric fry pan. Heat at hottest temperature; cook, stirring in one direction until candy becomes thick and caramel colored. (keep a brown paper bag next to the candy- it is ready when the candy is the color of the bag.) Candy should follow spoon. Add almonds (the coarsely chopped ones). Stir well and pour on a well-buttered cookie sheet. Use your spoon to spread it in the pan. Don't make it too thin...it won’t fill out the whole sheet. While still hot, put chocolate on top. When it melts, spread over toffee and sprinkle with finely chopped almonds. Cool overnight. Break in pieces and enjoy.